The Austin Bruins have been close with the top half of the NAHL Central in the last two weeks, but not close enough.

The Bruins dropped their third-straight home game when they fell to Bismarck 3-1, in Riverside Arena Friday night.

The Bobcats (11-6-1 overall) took the lead for good when Daniel Chladek scored on a slap-shot with 10:13 left in the game. Bismarck put the game away with an empty net goal in the final minute.

“I thought we played pretty well,” Austin head coach Steve Howard said. “It just came down to an even man rush and they squeezed it through the wickets of (Kyle) McClellan.”

Austin attempted 30 shots in the loss, but its only goal came when Reginald Millette scored just seven minutes into the game. Bismarck tied the contest at 1-1 just 40 seconds later when Mitchell Walinski scored on a breakaway.

Austin has been within one goal in the final minutes of each of its last three losses and the Bruins have scored just three total goals in the last three games.

“It’s just one of those things where we’ve got to find the back of a the net a little more,” Howard said. “I think we’re getting a ton of chances, but ultimately our guys that are here to score aren’t scoring. It’s tough and it just becomes one of those things where we’re chasing the game.”

Kyle McClellan stopped 19 of the 21 shots he saw in net for Austin (11-4-0-3 overall).

SCORING SUMMARY

Bismarck 1 0 2  —  3

Austin 1 0 0  —  1

First period

(A) Reginald Millette (Valdemar Ahlberg, Garrett Dahm) 7:15

(B) Mitchell Walinski (George Grannis) 7:56

Second period

No scoring

Third period

(B) Daniel Chladek 9:47

(B) Adam Stacho (Julian Trimba) (empty net) 19:54

Shots: Austin — 30; Bismarck — 22

Power plays: Austin — 0-for-3; Bismarck — 0-for-2